Actress tells how parents were taken, deported. Left alone at 14. No govt agency checked on her.

[REP]

43. There were if you weren't white, and the length of time to become a citizen was manipulated

Until about 1875, just about anyone who was white was welcomed but the length of time as a resident before becoming a citizen was often used as a political ploy (immigrants were sympathetic to one party, so the other party tried to exclude them from being eligible to vote ... sound familiar?). Then there was concern over the number of criminals, people from asylums, unskilled workers, etc being admitted so policies started to change.

For non-whites, the bar has always been higher. There was the Chinese Exclusion Act, and as recently as about 100 years ago, my grandfather and his family were turned away because the US had enough Jews, thank you. They ended up entering Canada legally and then the US illegally.